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Native American Speakers Series

The 1491s, an American Indian comedy group, will perform at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke on March 19, 2015, at 7 p.m. in the Givens Performing Arts Center as part of the Native American Speakers Series. The event is free and open to the public.

The 1491s are a collective of American Indian writers, filmmakers, visual and traditional artists, and advocates of Native language, culture and community. Founded in 2009, the group has a distinctly indigenous brand of satire.

Through comedy, the 1491s work to dismantle stereotypes of Native people and to represent the complexities of contemporary Native identity and experience. IndianCountryToday.com (ICT) described the 1491s as “some of the funniest people in Indian country; they hold a mirror up to the culture and critique it with a pointed stick.” Viewers of their videos, according to ICT, “can see once taboo subject matters brought to a head and then lanced like a boil that’s needed to be popped for the last [523] years.” Their videos “range from biting cultural satire and serious political statements to just plain goofiness.”

In their own words, “the 1491s are a sketch comedy group based in the wooded ghettos of Minnesota and buffalo grass of Oklahoma. They are a gaggle of Indians chock full of cynicism and splashed with a good dose of indigenous satire. They coined the term All My Relations, and are still waiting on the royalties. They were at Custer’s Last Stand. They mooned Chris Columbus when he landed. They invented bubble gum. the 1491s teach young women to be strong. And teach young men how to seduce these strong women.”

Capitalizing on the use of social media to disseminate their content worldwide, the 1491s have built a Facebook fan base of over 22,000 and their YouTube channel boasts nearly three million views.